Learning Spanish Has Never Been Easier : Memory Exercises

Article by Douglas Bower

Mnemonic memory training is a memory system that allows you to store information in and recall it from your long-term memory, and, in the case of learning a new language, your speech center. Mnemonics gives you a way to organize information, store it, and recall it. The better information is organized and stored, the easier you will be able to recall it when it is needed and the longer it will stay in your head. If you do mnemonics correctly, you concentrate and focus on information you want to remember in a way that will almost guarantee you will never forget it.

Some twenty-five years after going through my first mnemonic memory course, I still recall vocabulary words in French and I do not speak French at all. In the course, as an exercise, we learned some French words using the Substitute Word System–a mnemonic device–and I still can remember them. Now that is Memory Training. This is what mnemonics does for you: it creates a way for a simple, effective, and efficient storage and retrieval system. In other words, mnemonics provides you a way to find the information in your head. It is essentially like a search engine on the Internet in your head.

Some offer criticism of mnemonics. They say mnemonic training does not teach you to understand the information you are trying to remember. I find this a nonsense objection. Why would you be trying to remember something you do not understand? The very fact that you want to recall something means, in some way or other, you have a need to recall it and it implies there is at least some understanding of the material you are trying to remember.

Another criticism is mnemonic training is time-consuming. The truth is that it is indeed time consuming–all memory work is. But would you rather engage in something that will guarantee you will be able to remember the information or engage in some rote memory exercise that will almost guarantee you will NOT recall the information? I find I can store more than twenty NEW Spanish vocabulary words per day and ALWAYS remember them. I know some who can do ten times that amount.

Example of How I do it:

1) despejado–clear as in a clear sky

Imagine a clear sky–a totally beautiful day–spades suddenly materialize in the sky and begin falling like deadly arrows. This causes you to have to hide under a huge mound of dough until the danger passes.

2) el dependiente–the clerk

Imagine “L” tells a restaurant check out clerk that he depends on begin able to come in each day for a spot of tea.

3) el pa